Ep. 78: The Past is Never Dead...

Hey FRs,

Just thought I'd add a little Faulkner to your Friday. You're welcome.

If you're unfamiliar the full quote is:

"The past is never dead. It's not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity."

I was a big Faulkner-head back in grad school. I read all his books in order like only an asshole in graduate school would do. I'm guessing y'all have more important things to do with your time, so let me save you the hours. To my mind, you can boil a lot of his work down to that line. Things happen– horrible things, people or place-altering things, and no matter what you do, no matter how much time passes, they linger. He never used the words generational trauma and he likely would have found them too froofy but he knew it was real. This week's episode, with Armenian-American historian and musician Danny Bedrosian, was about much more than that, but I found my mind circling around this quote a lot since we recorded. If you haven't listened yet, now's a great time:

If you were hoping for an update on Iran, don't worry, we got ya. Seena's kids may be on Spring Break, but that's not gonna stop FP Zaddy from busting out his coolest shirt and whisper-ranting some thoughts.

Seena's Corner

Drop us a line....

Send us your questions, tell me your favorite Faulkner book, or send us pictures of your coolest shirt! We're here for you. Theforeignreportlpn@gmail.com.